Garmillas (species)
This article describes the Garmillas species as depicted in ''Space Battleship Yamato 2199 and its sequels. For the homeworld of the species, see Garmillas. For the species' counterpart in the original Space Battleship Yamato and its sequels, see Gamilas (species). For the similarly named half of the hive mind consciousness in the live action film, see Gamilas (live action film).'' Garmillas, also known as Garmillans, are a sapient humanoid species originating from the planet Garmillas. As the founders and leaders of the Great Garmillas Empire and the Garmillas Grand Duchy that preceded it, the species has become the dominant race in the Large Magellanic Cloud and territories beyond. Biology Members of the Garmillas species are most obviously identified by light blue skin. Among some Garmillas, skin color is an important trait distinguishing them from supposedly inferior alien races ("Point of No Return"). Garmillas have purple blood ("Graveyard of the Universe", "Over the Black Light", "The Forever War"). They may also age more slowly than humans, with lifespans that are possibly well over one hundred years long.Despite having the appearance of a human in his early thirties, Abelt Dessler is recognized at a palace celebration in "Wish Upon a Star" for having led the Great Garmillas Empire for more than a century. However, flashbacks in "O Teresa, Cry for Dessler!" indicate lifespans that are identical to those of humans. Aside from these characteristics, members of the species are nearly identical to humans, from anatomical structure down to the DNA level ("A World I Once Saw"). Both species can eat many of the same foods, and can survive in the same environmental conditions for limited periods of time ("A World I Once Saw", "The Planet That We Head For"). The Garmillan belief in their own uniqueness and superiority has become an eventual death sentence. The genetic purity of the species has made it overly adapted to the specific conditions found on the homeworld, and unable to survive over the long term in alien biospheres. The only solutions are to find or artificially create environments that exactly match those of the planet Garmillas, or to interbreed with local populations ("O Teresa, Cry for Dessler!"). History Early History The biological evolution of the Garmillas was influenced by an ancient alien race known as Aquarius, which discovered the species' homeworld and seeded it with its own genetic material (Space Battleship Yamato 2199: Odyssey of the Celestial Ark). The Garmillas civilization that emerged eventually built sprawling cities in the planet's vast open underground areas, and gave the planet's outer crust over to wilderness ("Wish Upon a Star", "The Planet That We Head For"). Sometime after the fall of an older interstellar empire originating on Garmillas' planetary twin, Iscandar, the Garmillan people began their own expansion into the cosmos ("The Distant Promised Land"). In addition to conquering other races, the Garmillas worked to "Garmillasform" uninhabitable worlds into life-sustaining planets, and used large sections of the crust of their homeworld and the native life on them as supply bases for their efforts[http://ourstarblazers.com/vault/434/ Interview with Masanori Nishii in "Secrets and Mysteries of Yamato" in Hyper Hobby #168 (translated for "Space Battleship Yamato 2199, Report 10")] ("Escape from the Jupiter Sphere"). No later than the year 1800 CE, Garmillans discovered the Aquarius gate network, allowing them to make use of corridors through subspace and to greatly expand their influence into the Small Magellanic Cloud and parts of the Milky Way Galaxy ("A Choice for the Future", "Out of the Forest of Memory"). Recent History :For more details, see Garmillas Grand Duchy and Great Garmillas Empire. Some Garmillans were led by a president until the unification of the species under the Garmillas Grand Duchy, which itself was reorganized and declared as the Great Garmillas Empire. Leader Abelt Dessler, whose reign over the empire began around the year 2096, was driven by secret knowledge that life on the planet Garmillas was dying, and that the Garmillan species was too pure to survive over the long term on planets with environments that did not exactly match that of the homeworld. He courted Queen Starsha of Iscandar, proposing the unification of his empire with the small but still powerful remains of hers to bring order and "salvation" to the universe under his banner ("Wish Upon a Star", "The Distant Promised Land", "O Teresa, Cry for Dessler!"). The empire's campaign of conquest also grew harsher, and control of the Garmillan people tightened considerably under the empire's secret police force, the Imperial Guard. The old aristocracy of the empire was greatly marginalized under Dessler's rule[http://ourstarblazers.com/vault/956/ Document 00: Underground Activities of Dessler’s Bodyguards, the Blue Shadow, translated in "The Yamato 2199 Secret Reports"][http://ourstarblazers.com/vault/770g_dhjune2013/ Dengeki Hobby, June 2013 (translated July 2013)][http://yamato2199.net/character_zoellick.html Official Space Battleship Yamato website character data for Herm Zoellik] In the year 2199, the regime of Abelt Dessler came to an abrupt end during the Battle of Garmillas, when it was believed that he had been killed ("One Man's War"). The transition to a more benign and democratic government commenced ("The Distant Promised Land", "The Forever War"). By late 2202, the former leader of the Imperial Guard carried on a conspiracy to undermine and replace the new government, and Dessler himself, rescued and armed by the Gatlantis Empire, began his own quest to return to power ("O Teresa, Cry for Dessler!"). Culture and Society Many facets of Garmillan society have come to be dominated by the authoritarian Garmillan state. Under the regime of Abelt Dessler, daily life has come to be oriented toward the greater glory of the empire, its policies, and its leaders. Military activity is routine in Baleras, with soldiers and warships becoming a regular sight in the imperial capital. Children learn from an early age to celebrate and emulate the military that fights to expand the empire's frontiers. The grave markers of deceased civilians, even children, are adorned with the emblem of the empire ("Wish Upon a Star", "What Lies Beyond", "The Planet That We Head For"). The Imperial Guard has contributed to these conditions through pervasive surveillance of the public, and through ideological programs carried out in cooperation with the Ministry of Propaganda ("Out of the Forest of Memory"). The centrality of the empire in Garmillas society is built upon a widespread--but far from universal--belief in the superiority of the Garmillas people over other races ("What Lies Beyond", "The Wolf from Another Dimension", "Point of No Return", "Prison Planet 17"). : Ironically, Garmillans show great reverence for the alien people and culture of Iscandar, making the planet into what a human observer once described as an "object of worship." Garmillans demonstrate unquestioning respect in their infrequent interactions with the few surviving Iscandarians; this includes use of the ritualized phrase "Rud Iscandar" ("Noble Iscandar")[http://ourstarblazers.com/vault/842/ "Ghale Garmillon! The Language System of Garmillas," by "Hoffnung," in Official Space Battleship Yamato 2199 Garmillas Mecha Book pp. 260-261 (translated by Neil Nadelman)] in welcoming and taking leave ("The Planet That We Head For", "One Man's War"). Technology Garmillan civilization has achieved one of the highest levels of technological advancement in its region of space. Even with such accomplishments, the Garmillas have come to rely in part on acquired alien technology, as in the case of the ''Pormelia''-class carrier Official Space Battleship Yamato 2199 Garmillas Mecha Book p. 70. The Aquarius network of subspace gateways, built in the distant past by a long-vanished alien race, has become a key element of the empire's expansion beyond its home galaxy ("Out of the Forest of Memory"). Robotics technology appears to have been shared between Garmillas and Iscandar, and Abelt Dessler's quest for closer ties with Iscandar has recently enabled the empire to begin building its own wave motion engines, one of the most potent and potentially destructive sources of energy known to science ("Clockwork Prisoner", "The Planet That We Head For"). Architectural design is relatively uniform throughout the empire. Buildings on the planet Garmillas itself and on the frontier world of Pluto tens of thousands of light years away both have a partially organic look that appears to have been grown as much as built. Many such buildings fill the city of Baleras, and are similar in shape, color, and size ("The Trap on All Sides", "Wish Upon a Star", "One Man's War"). Language :For more details, see Garmillas language. A single spoken and written language is used by all Garmillans. The language bears some similarities to Iscandarian, but time, distance, and circumstances have magnified differences between the two. The Garmillas language has spread widely with the territorial expansion of the empire, and some portion of the empire's alien subjects have adopted it as their own. Alien languages have had their own influence, introducing greater linguistic variety and irregularity into Garmillan ("We're Off Into the Sea of Stars", "The Sun Sets on Pluto"). Religion Concepts of gods and of heaven exist in Garmillas society. They may be invoked by a speaker as a way of declaring that a momentous or difficult action is the right one ("Over the Black Light", "Under a Rainbow Sun"). Notable Individuals :See Category: Garmillas Characters Behind the Scenes *Leiji Matsumoto has stated that he named the Gamilas of the original Space Battleship Yamato series after the 1871 vampire novel Carmilla.Leiji Matsumoto 1998 Interview The official English spelling used for most of the 2199 series would seem to reflect this. Notes and References Japanese language information ガミラス人 Gamirasu-jin Category:Sapient species Category:Life forms Category:Garmillas